Toliman (Alpha Centauri) in the birth chart: the nearest star

Star data

sefstars catalogue, Swiss Ephemeris 2.10.03.

Toliman is a traditional name for Alpha Centauri, the bright star in the forefoot of the Centaur and the nearest star system to the Sun. In the tropical zodiac it stands at the very end of Scorpio and will cross into Sagittarius within the next two decades. Ptolemy gives the bright stars in the horse's body of the Centaur the nature of Venus and Jupiter, the two benefic planets.

In the sky

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star of the constellation Centaurus and, after Sirius and Canopus, the third brightest star in the night sky. The naked eye sees a single point of light, but it is two stars close to each other: Alpha Centauri A, of the same spectral type as the Sun and slightly larger, and Alpha Centauri B, slightly smaller and cooler. They circle a common centre of gravity once every 80 years or so. A third, much fainter member, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, lies about two degrees away in the sky and is the nearest single star to the Sun. The bright pair is about 4.3 light-years away.

The catalogue position on this page is for the pair as the eye sees it: in astrology there is one Alpha Centauri, not two.

Alpha Centauri lies about 43° south of the ecliptic. At that distance a conjunction by zodiacal degree is a projection: a planet "conjunct Toliman" shares the star's longitude but stands far from it in the sky. For stars like this some astrologers prefer parans.

Finding it from Ukraine

Alpha Centauri cannot be seen from Ukraine. It lies about 61° south of the celestial equator and never rises anywhere north of about the 29th parallel. From the latitude of Kyiv, even at its highest point, it stays some 21° below the horizon. To see it, one has to travel south of that line, which in Egypt runs a little south of Cairo; in the southern hemisphere it is a familiar sight.

In antiquity the star stood further north than today and rose above the horizon in Egypt. Allen mentions that the astronomer Norman Lockyer linked the orientation of at least nine temples in northern Egypt to its first morning appearance. Precession has since carried it out of view there, much as it carried Achernar into view.

The name

The star has several names, and they do not all point to the same thing today.

Toliman goes back to Jacob Golius, who in his 1669 edition of the astronomer al-Farghani rendered an Arabic name for "the ostriches" as Tolimân. Arab astronomers saw ostriches in the stars of today's Centaurus, but, according to the IAU Working Group on Star Names, which star or stars the name first meant is unknown. In later use Toliman became a name for Alpha Centauri as a whole, and astrology took it over in that sense.

Rigil Kentaurus comes from the Arabic rijl qanturis, "the foot of the Centaur", a name from medieval Arabic astronomy that simply describes the star's place in the figure. Bungula, another name sometimes seen, Allen found only in the nineteenth-century atlas of Elijah Burritt and in the Standard Dictionary, and he suspected Burritt had coined it. In China the star belonged to the asterism of the Southern Gate.

In 2016 and 2018 the International Astronomical Union settled the names of the individual stars. Rigil Kentaurus is now the official name of Alpha Centauri A, the brighter star, and Toliman the official name of Alpha Centauri B, the fainter one; Proxima Centauri keeps its own name. So, strictly by the IAU's rules, the bright point an observer sees is mostly Rigil Kentaurus. This page keeps the name Toliman because it is the one astrological tables and books use for the whole star, and because it describes the pair, not one component.

Nature according to Ptolemy

In the first book of the Tetrabiblos Ptolemy divides the Centaur into two parts. The stars in the human body are like Venus and Mercury; "the bright stars in the equine body" are like Venus and Jupiter. Alpha Centauri, on the Centaur's front hoof, is the brightest star of the horse's body and takes the second nature. The overview explains how such comparisons are read.

Venus and Jupiter are the two planets that tradition calls benefic. Venus stands for harmony, affection, pleasure, beauty and the ability to bring people together. Jupiter stands for growth, trust, generosity, teaching and good fortune in the broad sense. Together they describe a warm, sociable and supportive tone: goodwill towards others and the sense of being supported by them.

Ptolemy does not describe the star alone: the nature belongs to the group of bright stars in the horse's body. It is still the oldest traceable description, and the readings below rest on it.

Conjunctions with planets and angles

Toliman is read by conjunction within an orb of about 1° (orb). Its great distance from the ecliptic makes it a weaker reference by longitude than stars close to the Sun's path, and some astrologers give it weight only on an angle or with a personal planet. Two typical cases show how tradition reads the Venus and Jupiter nature.

• Venus on Toliman. Venus is half the star's own nature, so the contact strengthens her themes: charm, a gift for friendship and for making peace. Astrologers read the same contact as a taste for comfort and a wish to please.
• Toliman on the MC. On the Midheaven the star's themes go into work and reputation: a public role built on goodwill, support from others in one's career, work that helps or teaches.

Precession and the change of sign

Like every star, Toliman drifts slowly along the zodiac (precession), and it now stands at the very edge of Scorpio. Because it is so close to us, its own motion across the sky is unusually fast, and in this catalogue its longitude grows a little more slowly than the usual rate of about 1.4° a century. Even so it will cross into Sagittarius in roughly fifteen years, around 2040.

A chart from today has the star at the end of Scorpio, one from the 2040s at the start of Sagittarius; the nature from Ptolemy stays the same.

In celebrity charts

Conjunctions within 1° to the planets from the Sun to Saturn and to the chart angles.

• Joe Biden: Venus, orb 0°00′
• Barack Obama: MC, orb 0°03′
• Emmanuel Macron: MC, orb 0°09′

Find fixed stars in your chart